Science Policy Around the Web – October 27, 2015

Martin Shrkeli became infamous after he became CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals and skyrocketed the price of a Daraprim pill, used to treat toxoplasmosis, from$13.50 to $750, a price hike of over 5000%! At that price, the Infectious Diseases Society of America had estimated that it would cost $336,000/year to treat a patient with toxoplasmosis. Turing acquired marketing rights for Daraprim from Impax Laboratories in August for $55 million; though it had initially been made and sold by GlaxoSmithKline for $1 a pill. The United States has no price control on medicines even though in they are common in Europe.

This move by Shrkeli and the news that other drug makers have bought the rights to old, cheap medicines that are the last resort for serious diseases subsequently raising prices has not only angered patients and physicians. It has triggered government investigations, heavy scrutiny by the media and a plunge in biotech stock prices, as well as becoming a political talk point in the upcoming election to fight “price gouging”.

However, there is a new player in the field. Imprimis Pharmaceuticals announced that it can make a ‘close, customized version’ of Daraprim for about $1 per pill. A current caveat is Imprimis’ formulation itself is not FDA approved, and can only be used when prescribed by a doctor for a particular patient. Imprimis CEO, Mark Baum, released the following statement that “Imprimis is forming a new program called Imprimis Cares which is aligned to our corporate mission of making novel and customizable medicines available to physicians and patients today at accessible prices.” (Maggie Fox, NBC news)

In a recent article published in Cell, Rasmussen et al. published that the plague-causing bacteria Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis) DNA was found in human teeth from Asia and Europe dating from the Bronze Age or ~2500-5000 years ago. This is well before any record of plague. These scientists examined over 100 human skeletons and found that the teeth in seven tested positive Y. pestis DNA. The oldest skeleton was 5783 years old! The authors suggest, “plague may have shaped early human populations.” Their data implies that Y. pestis did not become the flea-borne mammalian pathogen it is today (by acquiring the ymt gene), until sometime in the first millennium BC, well before the historically recorded plagues. (Simon Rasmussen, et al, Cell and James Gallager, BBC News website)

On October 14, 2015, Kai Kupferschmidt, a contributing correspondent for Science, had the opportunity to interview the director general of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan. The previous week was the first week that there was not a single new case of Ebola reported. This Ebola outbreak has killed over 11,000 people in almost two years.

During the course of the interview, two discussed many aspects of the current outbreak, including the lack of an initial response and how critical it is to get proper resources to those who need most. She stressed that countries impacted by an outbreak should report the disease while countries not affected by the outbreak should not impose their own trade or travel restrictions other than those recommended by the WHO. Chan has said to the WHO’s member states, “If you want WHO to be strong and fit for purpose, keep your promises. Put your money where your mouth is.”

Unfortunately, the WHO reported two new cases of Ebola in Guinea only two days after the interview on October 16, ending a two-week period in which no new cases had been detected across West Africa. The WHO does not consider a region Ebola-free until 42 days, or double the potential incubation time, have passed without a new case. The other two countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which were also heavily impacted by this outbreak, are further out from their last reported cases: Liberia is has met the deadline and is considered Ebola-free, while Sierra Leone is over halfway through the 42 day time period. The 42-day guideline may in fact be just that ‘a guideline’ as the Ebola virus has been isolated from seminal fluid 82 days after symptom onset. (Kai Kupferschmidt, Science)